You account e-mail needs to be authenticated. Check your spam folder or visit the reauthentication page to get a new e-mail sent to you.

J. Schroeder

Welcome to my page! I am still writing, though you wouldn't think it looking at the age of the material here. I hope to be taking down some older pieces and put up some new and/or improved work over the summer, so maybe this place will be a little less dusty come June or July :)

This piece is a long overdue tribute to Joelle Duran (andreth.elfwood.com/), who one day years past earned a comment milestone on my shelf here. This, at long last, is her story!The tale matches Joelle's initial request as I remember it, including one special ingredient which will be held secret for now. And as it is a tribute to Joelle, I personally guarantee that there will be no vampires, no hot weather, and no flooding! Instead, the story centers on the relationship and hardships shared by two young half-siblings who don't exactly lead easy or simple lives. This is not a light piece, though it is not entirely dark, either. There are some back-story and world-specific bits, but I hope these explain themselves well enough within the relatively short narrative arc. Please feel free to say so if you feel that any key pieces are missing. It feels complete to me, but then my brain has all the information it needs to fill in any gaps!And to Joelle, I hope you enjoy and know that all of your friendship and writerly criticism over the years has been appreciated!

A poem comprised of two voices, each of which belongs to one half of a villainous couple. The left-aligned sections belong to Cai, a magical being who gains power by taking the lives of others. The indented sections belong to the sorceress Firaga (fans of the Final Fantasy series will notice the tribute and guess what her element of choice is ^_~), who has partnered with Cai in many evil deeds. Note that they aren't actually meant to be speaking to one another--this is more what they are feeling as they are together in this moment. Hopefully this works. They are one of my favorite evil couples in my lore, and it was interesting putting part of their story down in this form.All comments and critiques are welcome, especially if you notice any slips in the meter. Both my brain and my fingertips are numb from counting out the beats during revisions, and new eyes are always appreciated :)Note to Moderators: I reworked the piece a bit to show the magical nature of the two more within the body of the poem. It's difficult as the piece is a dialogue of sorts, of course, but I think I've managed to give enough clues in this version.

A life-changing event in the life of the boy Ahnras, a child raised in a land and by a people only half his own. Dedicated to the lovely Shanra, for all of her wonderful comments on my poetry (and prose as well) and for being the 200th commenter on my page a few eons ago ^_~
I hope that she and everyone else likes this one... constructive criticisms more than welcome, and happy reading!!!

Parts two and three of Orispide's quest to destroy the beast. Without the Elders' approval and against all odds, what will Orispide and Katal discover as they set out on the first stage of their journey? (fairly brief - the sections will get longer as I go along)

Background information: This is an historic poem, written by the hand of an Elven lord of Old Essenar, the great city of the kingdom of Aradan. For those of you who've read 'Of Courage and Fire' (still posted on my shelf), you might recognize the name of the king. His death brought on the beginning of the end for his kingdom, as the poem indicates.
I'm not sure that this piece is quite finished, but the portion that I have written seems to stand well enough on its own to merit posting - so here it is! Enjoy :)

Parts four and five of Orispide's tale. After the morning's grim events, Orispide and Katal force themselves to move on. But when they chance to meet a strange hunter in the woods, will they trust him?

Just a short (*gasp* under five pages? I never do this!) little piece, oddly enough (*gasp again*) set in modern times. As you may guess from all the fuss above, this short is a bit of a departure from my usual style. Not that I don't like it--I'm actually quite fond of the piece, and it was much fun to write ^_^ The main event in the story is based on a real-life incident of last summer. My dad and I were talking about it the other night, and voila: two or three short hours and a finished story. *Sigh* I do so love inspiration when it deigns to come my way...Anywho, happy reading!Oh, and the one non-English word in there is just an expression of weariness or frustration--if you're interested in the word's origins, just let me know! There's a literal translation at the bottom of the page, but the info above should let you make sense of the term in context. Revision 5/19/2010 -- edited and generally polished up. I fixed wordiness and typos in more places than I'd like to admit, and I reworked some lines/images for clarity. Thanks to everyone who pointed out errors and stylistic issues in this piece :)

Part two of two of the chronicle of an event in the life of the elven mage Lady Kerryn, whose relationship with a powerful and exiled mage leads her into a perilous situation. This story is K.Sinclaire's long overdue prize for claiming the 100th comment on my page... thus, the main character is loosely based on her wish to be represented as a lady mage of the elven nobility. For those of you who may be acquainted with the history of my three elven kingdoms, she is a member of the Aratyn family--those descended from Sarselm, son of Emensor'tol. Without further ado, here you go! Hopefully the 200th comment prize won't be too far behind... ;)
Note: the translations for the bits of Elvish are located at the end of the section. Happy reading!

Part one of a two chapter chronicle of an event in the life of the elven mage Lady Kerryn, whose relationship with a powerful and exiled mage leads her into a perilous situation. This story is K.Sinclaire's long overdue prize for claiming the 100th comment on my page... thus, the main character is loosely based on her wish to be represented as a lady mage of the elven nobility. For those of you who may be acquainted with the history of my three elven kingdoms, she is a member of the Aratyn family--those descended from Sarselm, son of Emensor'tol. Without further ado, here you go! Hopefully the 200th comment prize won't be too far behind... ;)
Note: the translations for the bits of Elvish are located at the end of the section. Happy reading!

A poem written in my usual style, this one is inspired by a character of my brother's creation. He (the character, not my brother ^_~) is known as the Northern Lord or the Master of the North, and his ultimate goal in life is to engulf the world with his spell of darkness and rule it forever. Nice guy, huh?Revision 5/19/2010 -- adjusted the meter in one tricky spot and added punctuation to help with the flow of the poem. I still love this one and the character it focuses on, so hopefully you enjoy it as well!

A short piece, but one of my personal favorites. I'm not sure what inspired it, but I just settled down at my computer one sunny afternoon with a vague idea and it all but wrote itself. Let me know what you think! (Revised March 2005)

A fairly self-contained piece, this is actually an excerpt of sorts from a larger project I have been developing. This is the first part I've written, however, so it is also the first time the characters have been introduced. Hopefully this won't be too confusing! Let me know what you think about the format of the 'story within a story' element. I worked hard to make it flow well! Happy reading :)
Revised October 26 - thanks everyone for the wonderful CC!

Look! A poem without meter, rhyme and a quatrain format! It's so hard to break out of a pattern once you get into it, but I like this poem well enough to think that my little venture outside of my usual style was rewarding. Let me know what you think! Especially about punctuation, if you would. That's a new thing for my poems, too. Without meter, I used it to try to give some rhythm to the poem. I hope it worked ;)Revision 5/19/2010 -- the house keeping continues with a subtle revision of this piece. I've adjusted several images and lines which were a bit flat/cliched in the previous version, and hopefully the piece is smoother and stronger now. Happy reading!

This was just one of those story ideas that pop into the old creative bank now and then, only I actually got this one down on paper! It's short (about four pages), but I think it works. The characters are part of a storyline that I'm introducing for the first time with this tale, so please let me know what you think of them! Happy reading :)

The prologue and part one of the story, in which we meet both the beast and the young Elven warrior who will take it upon himself to slay it. 3-12-04: after revising with the help of the wonderful comments I have received, here is the new (and hopefully improved) version of the prologue and chapter one!

A revised version of the old poem (many thanks to all those who gave suggestions!), with some reworked lines and a brand new stanza! The old file had to be deleted because it was all in italics (careful with this--I didn't know it before, but it's against the formatting rules), unfortunately, so all the old comments got lost... but luckily I saved a backup copy of them ^_^
Happy reading!